August 7, 2011
Vikki Stone: Big Neon Letters Gilded Balloon
Billiard Room ****… [Derived headline]
Vikki Stone: Big Neon Letters
Gilded Balloon Billiard Room
by James Whatley
If Kate Nash was a character invented by Viz, she’d be Vikki Stone. Sitting at her keyboard, backed by her band The Flashbacks (smiling guitarist, deadpan drummer), she sings about modern life and failed relationships in a manner that takes filth to the highest level of art.
The spoken bits in between aren’t any cleaner, and at times it’s like eavesdropping on the dirtiest hen-night bitchfest ever. Her original songs are good, and she’s got a belter of a voice to spit them out with, but it’s when she weaves her crude killer couplets into recognisable tunes that the squirm factor and laughter quotient reach an explosive level. Disney will never be the same again after that song about thrush, Beauty And Her Yeast…
And don’t get me started on what she does with Abba‘s The Winner Takes It All. Underneath the rude bits are shadows of
something more serious about the lust for fame and the desperation of being single, and that’s what gives more power to the comedy punch. This is Bette Midler for the Adele generation. ~ Alan Morrison
Great review 🙂